Fabric mill plan unravels in Schoharie County

Green Recycling Solutions International fails to make investment in old Guilford site

By Brian Nearing

Published 7:21 pm, Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Cobleskill

Plans to redevelop a former Schoharie County fabric mill have fallen through after the New Jersey-based developer failed to come up with the money to start the project.

Schoharie County has retaken possession of the former 38-acre Guilford Mill after Green Recycling Solutions International, which purchased the property last winter, failed to start renovations as required under the sale agreement, said county Treasurer William Cherry on Wednesday.

"I knew there might be a problem this spring when the company did not put the required liability insurance on the property,'' Cherry said. The company had made a $5,000 down payment on the $2.5 million sale agreement that called for renovations on the former mill to begin within 45 days after the December closing, but no work was started, Cherry said.

"At this point, the only thing the county has really lost is eight months of its time," he added. Calls to company Chief Financial Officer Barbara Acuff for comment at the company headquarters in Fort Lee, N.J., were not returned.

Once used to manufacture swimsuit material and lace, the 468,000-square-foot building has been vacant since the company moved operations to Mexico in 2001, costing the region 500 jobs. The building now needs all utilities to be replaced before it could be leased to tenants, Cherry said.

To assist in redevelopment, the county had helped get the property added to the Start-Up NY program through the State University of New York at Cobleskill, which allows businesses near SUNY campuses to operate tax-free for 10 years. The town and school district also agreed to accept reduced property taxes.

But Cherry said Recycling Solutions claimed that renovating the property could cost up to $35 million, a figure that county officials say was vastly overestimated. Cherry said he believed the work could be done for less than $3 million, but "the only way you will know is to get an engineering study."

Now, the county faces several options on what to do the with property, he said. It could be put up for public auction. Or the county could seek state assistance to support renovation work, and then market the building for sale or lease.